Large & extra large icons blank

[Xileos]

First post here on the SevenForums! I'm only saving the tough ones for you guys! Here's the problem:

My client's computer was infected with a virus obtained via Facebook. I removed this and multiple other infections (and I'm pretty thorough with my scanning). She gets it back, starts working on it, and apparently her devices and printers icons are blank. Not missing, like with a "blank page" icon, just... blank. Here's the kicker: it only happens with large and extra large icons. It also happens with normal folder icons. When I change it to medium or lower, they come back. I've tried rebuilding the icon cache database several times, tried sfc /scannow, tried chkdsk, tried uninstalling any recent updates, etc... There have been no hardware changes, the hard drive has been tested as good (no bad sectors), her dual monitors are at a sane resolution, and I'm confident that the viruses has been removed. Trust me -- I've tried all the obvious stuff I can think of. Thanks and Good luck!

Edit: Also, I did about 30 minutes of searching through previous threads. Couldn't find a thing, but I could have missed it...

 

[zigzag3143]

First post here on the SevenForums! I'm only saving the tough ones for you guys! Here's the problem:

My client's computer was infected with a virus obtained via Facebook. I removed this and multiple other infections (and I'm pretty thorough with my scanning). She gets it back, starts working on it, and apparently her devices and printers icons are blank. Not missing, like with a "blank page" icon, just... blank. Here's the kicker: it only happens with large and extra large icons. It also happens with normal folder icons. When I change it to medium or lower, they come back. I've tried rebuilding the icon cache database several times, tried sfc /scannow, tried chkdsk, tried uninstalling any recent updates, etc... There have been no hardware changes, the hard drive has been tested as good (no bad sectors), her dual monitors are at a sane resolution, and I'm confident that the viruses has been removed. Trust me -- I've tried all the obvious stuff I can think of. Thanks and Good luck!

Edit: Also, I did about 30 minutes of searching through previous threads. Couldn't find a thing, but I could have missed it...

Well you probably pulled some icon cache files off that were infected but also had the L and XL icons. If sfc didnt work you could try a repair install. It will re-install only the files with different hash marks.

Make a backup and restore point first just in case

Ken

 

[Xileos]

Not a fan of the system restore... I've often seen it cause more problems than it solves...
What repair install do you speak of? Vista and 7 repair options suck compared to the repair options I had in XP. You know, the second repair option when booting to an install disc? Gone in Vista and 7. I vaguely remember another repair procedure in 7, but it basically rips out your programs while keeping your docs, and that's not what I wanna do here. And startup repair sucks. But I digress-- can you post the repair instructions anyways in case there was something I missed? Thanks for the quick response.

 

[A Guy]

Welcome to Seven Forums Xileos. System restore is actually much more reliable in Windows 7. A repair install will leave programs and settings intact. Here is a great tutorial by our own Brink:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

A Guy

 

[Xileos]

Thanks A Guy. I'll give it a try when the client isn't using her computer. I'll let ya'll know what transpires. BTW, I like that signature.

 

[Xileos]

Finally got a chance to try A Guy's instructions. Worked perfectly! Thanks, A Guy!

 

[A Guy]

Finally got a chance to try A Guy's instructions. Worked perfectly! Thanks, A Guy!

You're welcome Of course credit goes to Shawn for the great tute. A Guy

 

[coffeewow]

I know this is an old thread but I had a very similar experience to this thread and solved this issue for my computer and thought others may benefit.

After doing tons of google searching and trying everything I could find I was going to repair install windows 7 because nothing worked. Not system file checker, not resetting icon/thumbnail caches, not scan drives for issues, nothing.

But then the answer came to me... I remembered that I removed registry settings when cleaning up Linkey garbage and found 2 that I shouldn't have removed. Thankfully I backed up those keys before deleting them. Once I merged them back in, the large and extra large thumbnails showed up again. For those who may have this problem here are the keys I accidently removed.

First one was
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"IconServiceLib"="IconCodecService.dll"
"DdeSendTimeout"=dword:00000000
"DesktopHeapLogging"=dword:00000001
"GDIProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
"ShutdownWarningDialogTimeout"=dword:ffffffff
"USERNestedWindowLimit"=dword:00000032
"USERPostMessageLimit"=dword:00002710
"USERProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
@="mnmsrvc"
"DeviceNotSelectedTimeout"="15"
"Spooler"="yes"
"TransmissionRetryTimeout"="90"


And the 2nd one was...


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"IconServiceLib"="IconCodecService.dll"
"DdeSendTimeout"=dword:00000000
"DesktopHeapLogging"=dword:00000001
"GDIProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
"ShutdownWarningDialogTimeout"=dword:ffffffff
"USERNestedWindowLimit"=dword:00000032
"USERPostMessageLimit"=dword:00002710
"USERProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
@="mnmsrvc"
"DeviceNotSelectedTimeout"="15"
"Spooler"="yes"
"TransmissionRetryTimeout"="90"



These two keys almost identical. I orginally removed them due to this setting below that was with them. I should have just removed this info.


"LoadAppInit_DLLs"=dword:00000001
"AppInit_DLLs"="C:\\PROGRA~3\\Wincert\\WIN64C~1.DLL C:\\PROGRA~2\\Linkey\\IEEXTE~1\\iedll64.dll
C:\\PROGRA~2\\SETTIN~1\\systemk\\x64\\syskldr.dll "


Oh well, it now works like its supposed too and large and extra large thumbnails are working again.

 

[jhsparky]

Reply to coffeewow

Hi coffeewow, how did you merge the files, my system on has 2 lines under the registry items you mentioned.
Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

 

[coffeewow]

You shouldn't need to merge the files unless you already deleted the whole thing. Just delete the bottom 2 lines.

You should probably google merging registry keys though and do some reasearch on the process because you can really hose up your computer if you dont know what your doing. I dont know your background though. So just sayin...

Basically to merge you just copy those keys into notepad and change the file to a .reg and windows will ask you if you want to merge it when you double click on the file. You'd also need the windows registry header on there too. Im not on a computer atm or I'd post that for ya. It can be googled as well though.

 

[jhsparky]

You shouldn't need to merge the files unless you already deleted the whole thing. Just delete the bottom 2 lines.

You should probably google merging registry keys though and do some reasearch on the process because you can really hose up your computer if you dont know what your doing. I dont know your background though. So just sayin...

Basically to merge you just copy those keys into notepad and change the file to a .reg and windows will ask you if you want to merge it when you double click on the file. You'd also need the windows registry header on there too. Im not on a computer atm or I'd post that for ya. It can be googled as well though.

Thanks coffeewow, I now realize I didn't phrase my question correctly, sorry. My brain and mouth were going in two different directions. Should all the lines be in there? I can add them if they should be.

 

[coffeewow]

Yes, all the lines except the bottom 2, that being the ones with the linkey info.

 

[Typo91]

FIXED IT!!! thank you coffeewow!

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

was missing all the entries.... i started found that i could not even edit it... because first i made a quick merge file and i got denied... I am like a super windows pro myself, so this has really been bugging me... i am not about to reload windows just to fix icons...

But sure enough this was my problem....

WHAT WAS WRONG... this is the odd part...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows - permission had "everyone" with nothing checked effectively denying access to the system and everyone in the folder.

The very instant i removed "everyone" from the access list to match the rest of the keys in that section, the OS instantly populated the correct keys into the spot, without me even having to merge them in. I assume thats from the back up in the Wow6432Node.

BAM, bobs your uncle! all my folder blank icon wohas are over without even a reboot, or explorer restart.

This post lead me straight to the root of my problem. thanks!

 

[dhowlan]

Icon problem and black background solved

First, a large thank you to coffeewow as this would still be causing me massive irritation. I had the icon issue, large and extra large not showing anything but a clear tile, but if i click on medium and go back, they would show again. Also, the thing that started it was a black background or wallpaper and no ability to change it to anything other than a solid color.



This occurred following a reboot for a windows update. Hmm, microsoft software caused a problem with microsoft software? Who knows at this point, but that was when the problem started. The updates were .net framework related (two of them). I uninstalled them (just realizing now i need to reinstall them and see if it is still fine) and went back to a restore point but the problem remained. I also tried the myriad of possible solutions posed by microsoft and others- Ease of access, transcodedwallpaper issue, repaired and then uninstalled and reinstalled windows live essentials 2011, 3rd party display software (i had none, but did remove sagethumbs to no good effect), created a new user (but still no bueno), changed many folders in AppData to unhidden. There may be more, but you get the idea. There were enough threads with the OP finally giving up (even after reinstalling windows) that i knew this must happen to other people and never get solved.



Thankfully, because of the thumbnail icon issue, i found the coffeewow information. And now I'm dredging it up from the archives because i still think there are a lot of people (in what seems like every windows os) who never solved this and need to know how.



My registry for those sections [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows] and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows] were only inhabited by 3 lines. One was the default empty line, one was the AppInit dll line and the other was the AppInit to load dlls. I entered all the lines offered by coffeewow in both sections, rebooted and voila a background with wallpaper. And my thumbnails are showing up correctly now.



Clearly, i would never have sorted this out on my own. I'm still not sure my registry looks how it did 2 weeks ago or what caused this in the first place. Rest assured, i have run several malware, antivirus, etc programs to try to make sure nothing is still going on. Many thanks again to coffeewow for posting his/her solution.

 

[Green Nerd]

First, a large thank you to coffeewow as this would still be causing me massive irritation. I had the icon issue, large and extra large not showing anything but a clear tile, but if i click on medium and go back, they would show again. Also, the thing that started it was a black background or wallpaper and no ability to change it to anything other than a solid color.



This occurred following a reboot for a windows update. Hmm, microsoft software caused a problem with microsoft software? Who knows at this point, but that was when the problem started. The updates were .net framework related (two of them). I uninstalled them (just realizing now i need to reinstall them and see if it is still fine) and went back to a restore point but the problem remained. I also tried the myriad of possible solutions posed by microsoft and others- Ease of access, transcodedwallpaper issue, repaired and then uninstalled and reinstalled windows live essentials 2011, 3rd party display software (i had none, but did remove sagethumbs to no good effect), created a new user (but still no bueno), changed many folders in AppData to unhidden. There may be more, but you get the idea. There were enough threads with the OP finally giving up (even after reinstalling windows) that i knew this must happen to other people and never get solved.



Thankfully, because of the thumbnail icon issue, i found the coffeewow information. And now I'm dredging it up from the archives because i still think there are a lot of people (in what seems like every windows os) who never solved this and need to know how.



My registry for those sections [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows] and [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows] were only inhabited by 3 lines. One was the default empty line, one was the AppInit dll line and the other was the AppInit to load dlls. I entered all the lines offered by coffeewow in both sections, rebooted and voila a background with wallpaper. And my thumbnails are showing up correctly now.



Clearly, i would never have sorted this out on my own. I'm still not sure my registry looks how it did 2 weeks ago or what caused this in the first place. Rest assured, i have run several malware, antivirus, etc programs to try to make sure nothing is still going on. Many thanks again to coffeewow for posting his/her solution.

Got the same issue after installing Windows 10 on my new PC. After doing a ton of research and rebuilding my icon databases, luckily a found this thread.


Also a lot of other Windows 10 users have this issue. See: Windows Explorer Extra Large Icons View Not Working - Part 2 - Microsoft Community


Btw I used (and copy it into a .txt file and renamed it to .reg):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"IconServiceLib"="IconCodecService.dll"
"DdeSendTimeout"=dword:00000000
"DesktopHeapLogging"=dword:00000001
"GDIProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
"ShutdownWarningDialogTimeout"=dword:ffffffff
"USERNestedWindowLimit"=dword:00000032
"USERPostMessageLimit"=dword:00002710
"USERProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
@="mnmsrvc"
"DeviceNotSelectedTimeout"="15"
"Spooler"="yes"
"TransmissionRetryTimeout"="90"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"IconServiceLib"="IconCodecService.dll"
"DdeSendTimeout"=dword:00000000
"DesktopHeapLogging"=dword:00000001
"GDIProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
"ShutdownWarningDialogTimeout"=dword:ffffffff
"USERNestedWindowLimit"=dword:00000032
"USERPostMessageLimit"=dword:00002710
"USERProcessHandleQuota"=dword:00002710
@="mnmsrvc"
"DeviceNotSelectedTimeout"="15"
"Spooler"="yes"
"TransmissionRetryTimeout"="90"

 

[voja21]

Great thanks - solution works!

I wish to thank coffeewow for this great solution!

I had exactly the same problem.

 

[bodeg]

Many thanks to coffeewow

I having that problem for months on my Windows 8.1.
That caused problems with other software, like VMWare.

Micrisift suggestion to run a scan and fix did not solve it.

After coffeewow's regedit fix - everything works properly

Thanks for sharing

 

[JillMcAlly]

Still need help, please

Hey, i found someone with the same problem after weeks of searching but im kind of a noob with win10 still and i never edited the registry.
Could someone post a step-by-step guide for this problem?
This could help more people with the same problem and it could get posted to the official microsoft websites to spread the solution.

 

[YouGuysRock]

And yet another "thank you!" to coffeewow...

Exactly the same problem.
To document more closely:
1. no icons or thumbnails, just blank spots when move to a folder with Extra Large Icons selected. (despite unchecking "Always show icons, never thumbnails" in options, despite similar options in Advanced system options etc. etc.)
2. While in the folder, choosing "medium icons" restores the small thumbnails and they get bigger but are distorted (low resolution) when return to "Extra Large Icons".
3. Choosing "Small icons" briefly produces small icons (not thumbnails) but on returning to Extra Large Icons after this, the thumbnails are now full resolution.
4. Preview pane would not show previews for any image (.jpg.png.raw.tif.bmp etc.) file, nor for any other media (.mp4.mp3,m4a etc.) file. Previews were shown for .doc.txt.xls.html.reg etc.
5. instant restoration of thumbnails and preview pane after merging these key values.
6. I also had the problem with (intermittently) blank background on the desktop (normally I have a picture there). Picture is now restored.

I just restarted and the thumbnails are still there!

I did not delete these entries beforehand. Running Windows 10 Build 1803 OS build 17134.48 on an ASUS F402B.
Only relevant program installation might have been a beta version of FreeCommander - but NO information to connect this other than timing.
All other leads followed: looking at default programs, Windows Photo Viewer, Windows Media Player, Policies, reg entries under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (file type, SystemFileAssociations etc.), checking and unchecking options all came to nought.

System Restore also failed (but that is probably a permissions error.)

I also tried SFC /scannow and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth, to no effect. Not to mention the hours of wading through Microsoft Documentation....

I was in the middle of EXIF re-orientating all my pictures and to have the thumbnails disappear was extremely debilitating.

Can't thank you enough coffeewow!

 

[YouGuysRock]

Hey, i found someone with the same problem after weeks of searching but im kind of a noob with win10 still and i never edited the registry.
Could someone post a step-by-step guide for this problem?
This could help more people with the same problem and it could get posted to the official microsoft websites to spread the solution.

Green Nerd has done this for you:
1. Open the registry editor (%windir%\regedit.exe) and navigate to and right-click on the keys that Green Nerd has enclosed in square brackets. From the right-click menu choose export. (You'll need to do this for each of the two keys)
2. copy the text at the end of his post (select it then press Ctrl-C) and open a notepad window (%windir%\system32\notepad.exe) then paste the text in (Ctrl-V) and save (Ctrl-S) using any name with the ending ".reg" (e.g "filename.reg"). then click on the file to run it and give your approval to merge the values into the registry.